Detroit Red Wings' Jeff Petry not just getting homecoming. He will be huge for power play

Jeff Petry is happy not to have any ticket requests, and the Detroit Red Wings are happy Petry is on their ticket.

Acquired via an offseason trade, the 35-year-old defenseman is two weeks into his stint with the Wings, and already demonstrating that he can help in a most crucial way.

"We need offense throughout our lineup," coach Derek Lalonde said Wednesday. "I think the added depth in the offseason had a lot to do with just adding some goals throughout, and he can contribute there."

Petry projects to help the Wings at even strength, and fortifies the second power play unit, where, during exhibition season, he has either played the point or been a shooter. The nice thing for the Wings is that either Petry or fellow defenseman Jake Walman is an option to put there.

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"Both can run it and both can play in that shooter’s spot, and they’re both good on breakouts, good poise," Lalonde said.

Petry has 353 points, 100 of them on the power play, in 864 career NHL games. His ability to maneuver the puck was a key part of the attraction that drove general manager Steve Yzerman to acquire Petry in mid-August, when he was available on a great deal: The Wings sent the Montreal Canadiens little-used defenseman Gustav Lindstrom and a conditional fourth-round draft pick in 2025 for Petry, whose $6.25 million salary cap hit (through 2024-25) will be covered partly by the Canadiens and Pittsburgh Penguins, to the point it only costs the Wings $2,343,750 annually. That's a reasonable price for a player who makes the Wings better in multiple ways.

"He’s a veteran, solid player," Walman said. "He takes command a lot out there and it’s nice having him. It feels steady. Off the ice he’s got a lot of wisdom, as well, and he’s been in those places that we all want to be, and those games late in the season, so we can lean on him a little bit."

Petry, the son of former Detroit Tigers pitcher and current studio analyst Dan Petry, is adapting well to his third team in three years. He was slated to see his third exhibition game against his former team, the Penguins, on Wednesday evening.

"Everything is feeling better every day," he said. "Coming into a new system, it takes a little bit of time. I felt better as the first preseason game went on and the next one built off of that. I’m just looking to continue to round out my game and get ready.

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"As much as you can get done in practice, those reps against opponents that don’t necessarily know the system as well as guys in practice who are defending you, it’s good to put everything into place. It’s important to get those game reps."

Lalonde has yet to commit to his defense pairings beyond Walman and Moritz Seider, but Petry and fellow newcomer Justin Holl are both right-handed shots, which enables the Wings to form pairs each with a lefty and a righty — but another newcomer, Shayne Gostisbehere, allows for flexibility in that regard.

"Ideally we would like that, but we are not married to that," Lalonde said. "And one of the attractive pickups in Shayne is his ability to play his off hand. I don’t know if we would do that to any other D, but the versatility of him being able to play on his off hand is something that’s attractive for him."

The Wings wrap up the exhibition season Saturday. The season opener is a week away, and then home opener two days later, on Oct. 14. But for all his ties to the area — Petry is from Ann Arbor — ticket requests have been nil.

"Actually zero so far, so we’re on the right track," Petry said, smiling. He did say he expected his dad to among the fans at Little Caesars Arena.

Contact Helene St. James at hstjames@freepress.com. Follow her @helenestjames.

Read more on the Detroit Red Wings and sign up for our Red Wings newsletter. Her latest book, “On the Clock: Behind the Scenes with the Detroit Red Wings at the NHL Draft,” is available from  Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Triumph Books. Personalized copies available via her e-mail.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Why Jeff Petry should be able to help Detroit Red Wings score more